Malort made from beer released Friday as a creative solution to a serious problem: Kegs expiring due to coronavirus

When a pandemic hands you old beer, you don’t make lemonade. You make Malort.

In this case, the old beer was 160 kegs of Revolution Brewing’s flagship Anti-Hero IPA that were about to fall out of code while most bars and restaurants remain closed to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

Rather than dump the beer, Revolution teamed up with Chicago’s CH Distillery to create a first: Malort made from beer.

The product, which goes on sale Friday at Revolution, CH Distillery and Binny’s, pairs two modern Chicago icons: the city’s top-selling craft beer and the city’s most iconic spirit, an intensely bitter liqueur that doubles as a civic badge of pride.

But it’s also a playful solution to a serious problem for breweries large and small: What to do with all those useless kegs?